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Realising that his neighbour Elton John owned a Watford FC-themed Aston Martin, he told him in 2001: 'Oh it's you that owns that ghastly car is it? We often see it when driving to Windsor Castle.'

And on a visit to Australia in 1992, when asked if he wanted to stroke a koala bear, he replied: 'Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease.'

The Duke is no fan of travelling 'cattle' when he travels by air, telling the Aircraft Research Association in 2002: 'If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort, provided you don't travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.'

Some of Prince Philip's most memorable uses of the word include the time he was asked for his views on Beijing during a 1986 tour of China. 'Ghastly,' he replied

Referring to his time in the Navy, and the issue of stress for modern servicemen, he said: 'It was part of the fortunes of war.

'We didn't have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, asking, 'Are you all right - are you sure you don't have a ghastly problem?' You just got on with it!'

But despite its regular use by the Prince - the pinnacle of Tatler's upper-class readership - the magazine has written the word's epitaph.

'Ghastly' was the social word of the decade. We devoured it. We dropped it like a little bomb whenever we felt the need to pass judgement,' Ms Rivkin concluded.

TATLER'S ALTERNATIVES

Tatler’s alternative adjectives to condemn a party - and its opinions on them - include:

‘What a rotten party’ - Less shimmering than ‘ghastly’. More [Enid] Blyton than [Nancy] Mitford, but ticks a retro box.

‘What an awful party’ - Can’t argue with this if it’s true. Common or garden fed-up.

‘What a party!’ - Like ‘What a baby!’ Perfection. Shows lightness of touch.

‘What an annoying party’ - This is a conversation starter. There are clearly things to be discussed. Debrief central. Excellent. Spoken by a gossip.

‘What a synthetic party’ - Nicely put.

'But guess what? That ghastly ship has sailed. The ghastly horse has bolted. The ghastly milk is spilt. It is most definitely time for a ghastly moratorium.

'Ghastly' is a kind of external manifestation of an internal mean-spiritedness. Unfashionable. Unattractive. Rather gauche in the end. Don't do it.'

She adds that the word was first used before the 2008 recession, when 'life was golden. If you were in your 20s or 30s, you had all the fun of the fair.'

But it has now become 'rather gauche', harking back to an age which was 'languid and overindulged and self-consciously glamorous'.